I am planning a trip to Morocco in September 2019 - mostly Atlas Mountains and Desert but I wonder what my chances of White headed Duck and Marsh Owl would be if I was to drive North West from Marrakech? I have had a look at sightings on eBird but I am not certain that I can get to the correct area. TIA
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
White Headed Duck and Marsh Owl (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter exedchef
- Start date
The best area for White-headed Duck is Sidi Boughaba and the best for Marsh Owl is Merja Zerga. The former is pretty easy to do and the birds should be viewable from roads. The Marsh Owls take a bit more work and it can be complicated to get to the areas where the birds might be because there's a maze of tracks that aren't generally marked on any maps. It would probably be easiest to hire a guide for that species. It would be a bit of a long drive out from Marrakech to these areas so it would make sense to stay a night in that area, particularly as you'd be looking for the owl in the evening.
jurek
Well-known member
I don't remember, basically he asked some acceptable price (by Moroccan price level) and we paid him. He also invited us for a dinner and offered us to sleep in his house. However we would see the owl anyway. The guide knew the exact place, but it was the place where observado.org showed most sightings. It is an open lakeside with fields coming to a broad reedbed, and walking on these fields you would see the owl flying over the reedbed.
Last edited:
James Lowther
Well-known member
The guide’s name is Hmida Hammouradia, telephone number is tel:+212 20668492479. He speaks no English and only moderate French. Making arrangements with him takes a certain degree of resourcefulness and flexibility. However he is a lovely guy and knows exactly where to go to find the owls.
White headed ducks are easy at the north (causeway) end of lac de sidi bourghaba as already said.
James
White headed ducks are easy at the north (causeway) end of lac de sidi bourghaba as already said.
James
Acrocephalus
Well-known member
I agree with James. Hmida only know very little of European languages, but he know what he is doing. Over the years, he has been visited by large number of Moroccan researchers (e.g. during waterbirds census,...) and birders as well as by foreign birders. If you stay at his house-turned-hostel you can see this is the 'guest-books'.
His house is marked in Google Maps as Auberge Hammouradia. See: https://goo.gl/maps/aKrdLBQskc9cuZ5L8
Last March, GREPOM/BirdLife Morocco and the Forestry Administration paid tribute to him in recognition for his services to Merja Zerga during a conference about wetlands organised at Kenitra.
As for the White-headed Duck, Sidi Boughaba is very good. Merja Fouwarate, a little-known urban wetland adjacent to Kenitra is also good. In addition to the small breeding population, the site receives large numbers of wintering birds (very large numbers during some years, e.g. 1430 individuals in January 2018, which is a big percentage of the Morocco-Iberian population).
The wetland is marked as Merja Si Ali Bouchta in Google Maps (I don’t know why). See: https://goo.gl/maps/MSfyPwwWgq3CTURB9
James Lowther
Well-known member
Actually I think he has moved house and now lives here
(34.8136616, -6.3017203)
This would be next to impossible to find on your own however, the roads in this village are not marked on google maps!
James
